Recently on Instagram, The Shopkeepers put out a call for New England businesses worth knowing about. Having New England roots ourselves, we took great interest in the responses. The one that rose to the top? Porto, a new general store occupying a long ago neighborhood grocery in Warren, Rhode Island. We were won over by the bench out front, cafe table with bentwood chairs, and salvaged counter. Owner Justin Silva’s story is pretty memorable, too.
In fact, it’s like something out of a movie. Justin spent much of his childhood in the coastal town, which still has a working waterfront. Post-college, he worked as a TV producer specializing in unscripted shows—MTV, National Geographic, Animal Planet—for nearly two decades. In a wild gear shift, Justin left Los Angeles for home, newly appreciative of its charms. In need of a calling, he bought an 1883 clapboard building on Water Street with his brother. For more than half a century, it had been Socha’s Market and relics from the store, including the counter, found preserved in the basement, have been put back into service. Justin describes Porto as showcasing elevated staples, from brooms to pantry goods, and simply being a nice place for “people to stop by regularly, linger, and run into neighbors.”
Refreshingly, he has no plans to expand or to welcome in a camera crew. And like the Socha family before him, he lives over the store.
Photography by Michael Clifford, courtesy of Porto (@portogeneralstore).
Justin named the shop Porto—”port” in Portuguese, his family’s heritage—thanks to its port town location—an idea that came to him while traveling in Porto, Portugal. “I’ve always been drawn to small, independent shops, particularly the neighborhood merchants you encounter in Europe,” he says.”I wondered whether that old-fashioned model could work today—and whether I could build a life around it. Porto is an experiment in both retail and lifestyle: creating something financially sustainable, creatively fulfilling, and rooted in a community I care about.”
Justin and his brother purchased the building from the Socha family: “as I understand it, we’re only the second family to own it, which is pretty remarkable.”
“My mother owned antique stores when I was growing up, so I’ve been surrounded by old objects for much of my life,” says Justin. “My brother has more than 20 years of experience in the grocery business and has been a terrific resource for product ideas, merchandising, placement, and understanding what customers want” He also notes that “the transition from television to shopkeeping isn’t as dramatic as it sounds: I’m still creating an environment and thinking about how people experience a space. The difference is that now it’s tangible, and I get to experience it alongside the people who walk through the door.”
“My Portuguese father did an extraordinary amount of the work. Like many Portuguese men of his generation, he can do just about anything. His hands have touched nearly every corner of the store: he restored the bay windows, repaired and replaced sections of the original wood floor and horizontal wood-plank wall cladding, and reinstalled a Dutch door that leads to the backyard.”
Porto, Justin says, “is a one-person operation. I own and run the business myself, from sourcing and displays to making coffee and working behind the counter. My family and friends have been wonderfully supportive, but the day-to-day shopkeeping is largely me. That’s intentional: I want to see whether a small independent store can work on a human scale without immediately building a large staff or operation around it.”
Porto is at 196 Water Street in Warrren, Rhode Island. It’s open Thursday-Sunday, 10 am to 6 pm.
Shops the world over that sell better versions of everyday essentials:
- Tools for Living: Casa González and González in Madrid
- Labour and Wait in Shoreditch (and now beyond)
- Objects of Use in Oxford
- “Objects in Danger of Extinction”: Utilitario Mexicano in CDMX
- Maison Empereur in Marseille
- Bric-à-Brac in Constanta, Romania
- Landline in Paris
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